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Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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Hurricane Milton's outer bands reach Florida as millions of residents race to prepare or flee the path; ME 'living shorelines' counter rising sea levels and stronger storms; NC moms speak out on medical neglect in high-risk pregnancies; TN grant program funds early health care career pathways.

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President Biden cancels international travel as Florida braces for Hurricane Milton, Arizona's early voting brings a focus on Native votes, SCOTUS considers ghost guns, and Nevada gets ready to decide on a voter ID measure.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, there's mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Millions in Federal Money for Culvert Fixes in Alaska

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Wednesday, August 23, 2023   

Fish passage is set to improve in the Northwest with an investment from Congress's bipartisan infrastructure law.

The Biden administration has announced its first round of grants totaling $196 million to fix or remove culverts across the country. Culverts channel water under structures such as roadways, but can be barriers to fish who use streams and rivers.

Michael O'Casey, deputy director of the Pacific Northwest region for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said culverts are especially hard for young salmon and other species to pass.

"This is really an incredible opportunity to improve passage and ecological connectivity of rivers and streams here in the Northwest and across the country," O'Casey emphasized.

Alaska will receive more than $44 million for 45 projects in the state, second only to Washington state's 46 projects. Investments for fish passage in the infrastructure law total $2 billion nationally, and will be allocated to tribal, state and local governments over the next five years.

Christy Plumer, chief conservation officer for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said many culverts were designed only for temporary use, and called for an infrastructure improvement paradigm shift.

"When we have things like increasing storm events from a changing climate, we really wanted to see a dedicated source of funding for replacement of these culvert infrastructure and allowing more fish passage," Plumer stressed.

Plumer noted the projects will also provide jobs. According to a 2021 report from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the so-called "restoration economy" creates more than 17 jobs for every one million dollars invested.

"Often rather than a 10- or 20-year life span for these projects, we're seeing a 50-year life span," Plumer reported. "These are big infrastructure projects. They're going to bring a lot of local jobs to the local economies."

Disclosure: The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Endangered Species and Wildlife, Environment, and Public Lands/Wilderness Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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Hurricane Milton grew to become a major hurricane on the morning of Oct. 7, 2024. (AWS S3 Explorer/Wikimedia Commons)

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